Automatically-acting and permanently-residing tube cleaner



Nov. 27 1923.

D. EVANS AUTOMATICALLY ACTING AND PERMANENTLY masmmeyuas CLEANER FiledMay 2. 1922 Patented Nov. 27, 1923.

UNITED STATES DAVID EVANS, OF BUBBY PORT, ENGLAND.

AUTOMATICALLY-ACTING AND PERMANENTLY-RESIDING TUBE CLEANER.

Application filed May 2,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID EVANS, a'subject of the King of England,residing at Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, in the Kingdom of England, haveinvented new and useful Automatically-Acting and Permanently- ResidingTube Cleaners, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an automatically acting and permanently residingtube cleaner which consists in a spherical perforated metal shell,casing or body, containing a buoyant wooden or cork or other core, tokeep out foreign matter, while integral roughened edges connected withthe shell or body permit of the performance of an effective and constantpicking and hammering action.

The spherical outer shell or metal casing forms a body which isadvantageously made in two parts soldered or otherwise secured together.

The shell can be made in various sizes and need not of necessity be atrue sphere, but the shape may be slightly varied to suit the actualcleaning work required for the removal of corrosion in water pipes andso forth. Further, the shell is to be rendered buoyant, for whichpurpose the cork centre or core is particularly serviceable. The outercasing may be made of steel or of any other appropriate metal roughenedon the outside, such'as by the punching of perforations in such a manneras to form projecting cutting edges for continued automatic action bythe shell during service hours as will be hereinafter explained.

In order that my invention may be fully understood and readily carriedinto effect, I will describe the same with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, which show a typical example and wherein Figure 1 shows aperspective view of one half of an outer metallic casing made accordingto this invention; Fig. 2 show the core for buoyancy; Fig. 3 shows aface View 1922. Serial N0. 558,003.

of the complete casing; and Fig. 4 shows an enlarged view of a portionhaving the rough surface of a perforation;

The outer shell, casing or body consists of two portions such as Aarranged to fit together, as shown at Fig. 3, say by soldering at B orotherwise. The outer casing A contains a core C of appropriate buoyantmaterial, and is perforated with holes D to form roughened edges orsurfaces as indicated at Fig. 4.

These balls A or the like are put in a 7 water pipe or pumping conduitand are to the number of about 12 to 20 balls, ac-

cording to the length to be kept clean.

The great advantage derived is that the pipes do not have to be takenapart which is important in the case of pumping installations. It is ofcourse immaterial at what inclination the pipes are set or whether thereare bends in the pipe or not. The invention has been tried in actualpractice and is found to be highly eflicient, the cleaningoperationbeing automatically effected thus saving time and labour over theordinary method of. dismantling the tubes for cleaning.

I claim:

An automatically acting and permanently residing tube cleaner consistingin a spherical shell, casing or body, integral projectingroughened edgesconnected with said body and a buoyant core contained in said body, asand for the purpose stated.

DAVID EVANS.

